Don Lancaster: RIP...

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:

On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones.. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

You doesn\'t seem to have been.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Tabby]

On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.
Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.


> You doesn\'t seem to have been.

Obviously you don\'t know what electronics books I\'ve read. You\'re just determined to look silly again. Cue more excessive insecurity.

 

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:08:11 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:

On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.

Only if you have read several different text-books. Bad text books are mostly bad in what they leave out, though they can be bad in using misleading concepts, like \"leakage inductance\".

> Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.

There are better and worse ways of doing that. Don did tout himself as a guru, and he wasn\'t quite thorough enough to have earned that status.

You doesn\'t seem to have been.

Obviously you don\'t know what electronics books I\'ve read. You\'re just determined to look silly again. Cue more excessive insecurity.

The reference was to people who had been messed up by bad textbooks. You don\'t know enough to know what that means, so you may qualify as an example.
I do know that you haven\'t understood enough good electronics texts, even if I don\'t know the route that got you into your current lamentable state of ignorance.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Dimiter_Popoff]

On 7/9/2023 14:52, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:08:11 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.

Only if you have read several different text-books. Bad text books are mostly bad in what they leave out, though they can be bad in using misleading concepts, like \"leakage inductance\".

Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.

There are better and worse ways of doing that. Don did tout himself as a guru, and he wasn\'t quite thorough enough to have earned that status.

You doesn\'t seem to have been.

Obviously you don\'t know what electronics books I\'ve read. You\'re just determined to look silly again. Cue more excessive insecurity.

The reference was to people who had been messed up by bad textbooks. You don\'t know enough to know what that means, so you may qualify as an example.
I do know that you haven\'t understood enough good electronics texts, even if I don\'t know the route that got you into your current lamentable state of ignorance.

You don\'t get tired of being a bitter old man, do you.

 

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 11:34:16 PM UTC+10, Dimiter_Popoff wrote:

On 7/9/2023 14:52, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:08:11 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.

Only if you have read several different text-books. Bad text books are mostly bad in what they leave out, though they can be bad in using misleading concepts, like \"leakage inductance\".

Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.

There are better and worse ways of doing that. Don did tout himself as a guru, and he wasn\'t quite thorough enough to have earned that status.

You doesn\'t seem to have been.

Obviously you don\'t know what electronics books I\'ve read. You\'re just determined to look silly again. Cue more excessive insecurity.

The reference was to people who had been messed up by bad textbooks. You don\'t know enough to know what that means, so you may qualify as an example.
I do know that you haven\'t understood enough good electronics texts, even if I don\'t know the route that got you into your current lamentable state of ignorance.

You don\'t get tired of being a bitter old man, do you.

Tabby does bring out my particularly bitter aspects. I wouldn\'t study his posts to find out why I find him irritating - it\'s not a rewarding exercise.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[Michael Terrell]

On Thursday, July 6, 2023 at 1:41:22 AM UTC-4, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Nothing Dona Lancaster wrote would have been anything like as useful.

In your useless opinion, Wilma!

 

[John Larkin]

On Sat, 8 Jul 2023 16:08:06 -0700 (PDT), Tabby <tabbypurr@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05?AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.
Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.

His books and articles, and Popular Electronics mag, got zillions of
kids interested in electronics, far better than any textbooks would
have done. His style, whether it was instinctive or deliberate, was
accessable and fun for beginners

One could get Popular Electronics at a supermarket. I\'d toss one in
our cart, or just read it while my parents shopped.

What a concept, \"Popular Electronics\"

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 9 Jul 2023 16:34:07 +0300, Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com>
wrote:

On 7/9/2023 14:52, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:08:11?AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05?AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.

Only if you have read several different text-books. Bad text books are mostly bad in what they leave out, though they can be bad in using misleading concepts, like \"leakage inductance\".

Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.

There are better and worse ways of doing that. Don did tout himself as a guru, and he wasn\'t quite thorough enough to have earned that status.

You doesn\'t seem to have been.

Obviously you don\'t know what electronics books I\'ve read. You\'re just determined to look silly again. Cue more excessive insecurity.

The reference was to people who had been messed up by bad textbooks. You don\'t know enough to know what that means, so you may qualify as an example.
I do know that you haven\'t understood enough good electronics texts, even if I don\'t know the route that got you into your current lamentable state of ignorance.


You don\'t get tired of being a bitter old man, do you.

It\'s a terrible, fatal, and voluntary disease.

 

[Michael Terrell]

On Thursday, July 6, 2023 at 6:13:53 PM UTC-4, Dimiter_Popoff wrote:

And you chose to shit all over what is basically a talk at a funeral.
Did not realize your issues were *that* serious.

Everything has to be about him. He\'ll tell you that he is the most important man to ever have walked the earth. He is a male \'Karen\'.

 

[Michael Terrell]

On Friday, July 7, 2023 at 10:30:25 AM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

Get an old copy of his Active Filter Cookbook and you\'ll see a glimpse
of Lancaster\'s personality.

I still have several of his books. The first was his \'TV Typewriter\' which taught me the basics of using logic
ICs. It was basically a computer terminal, without a com port, and early designs used shift registers instead of RAM. I think that I still have a couple 2513 chips that stored the character codes.

Like you said, his style was like an informal Electronics class. Similar to how I taught Electronics at a High School in the late \'60s.

As usual, you are arguing with a brick wall. No one will have anything nice to say when he\'s gone, if he continues being like this.

 

[Michael Terrell]

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 10:43:55 AM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

His books and articles, and Popular Electronics mag, got zillions of
kids interested in electronics, far better than any textbooks would
have done. His style, whether it was instinctive or deliberate, was
accessable and fun for beginners

One could get Popular Electronics at a supermarket. I\'d toss one in
our cart, or just read it while my parents shopped.

What a concept, \"Popular Electronics\"

You can still read them:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm

 

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Monday, July 10, 2023 at 12:47:08 AM UTC+10, Michael Terrell wrote:

On Thursday, July 6, 2023 at 6:13:53 PM UTC-4, Dimiter_Popoff wrote:
And you chose to shit all over what is basically a talk at a funeral.
Did not realize your issues were *that* serious.
Everything has to be about him. He\'ll tell you that he is the most important man to ever have walked the earth.

What a bizarre idea. My father had some 25 patents to his name - and so do two of my friends. I\'ve got three. I\'m not in an position to claim that I\'m in any way more important than any of them. Mike Terrell imagines that I\'d stretch out way beyond that ...

> He is a male \'Karen\'.

Even more unlikely. Mike Terrell isn\'t very bright, so he does tend to get the wrong end of the stick. He may be confusing me with John Larkin, who does take himself seriously, but nowhere near that seriously.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 9 Jul 2023 08:02:09 -0700 (PDT), Michael Terrell
<terrell.michael.a@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 10:43:55?AM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

His books and articles, and Popular Electronics mag, got zillions of
kids interested in electronics, far better than any textbooks would
have done. His style, whether it was instinctive or deliberate, was
accessable and fun for beginners

One could get Popular Electronics at a supermarket. I\'d toss one in
our cart, or just read it while my parents shopped.

What a concept, \"Popular Electronics\"

You can still read them:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm

Who were those two kids that had a tech adventure story every month?
Not Ben&Jerry, but maybe Carl and somebody.

 

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 9 Jul 2023 08:02:09 -0700 (PDT), Michael Terrell
<terrell.michael.a@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 10:43:55?AM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

His books and articles, and Popular Electronics mag, got zillions of
kids interested in electronics, far better than any textbooks would
have done. His style, whether it was instinctive or deliberate, was
accessable and fun for beginners

One could get Popular Electronics at a supermarket. I\'d toss one in
our cart, or just read it while my parents shopped.

What a concept, \"Popular Electronics\"

You can still read them:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm

There were so many electronics magazines back then!

And literally - on purpose - tons of military surplus electronics that
was almost free. As an under-wing radar pod for $70, or a radiosonde
for a few dollars, or a spiffy CRT display for about $10. Beautiful
tubes almost free.

Kids should tinker with electronics when they are young, to get
instincts. Then later, when they get the formal textbook education,
things click. Don really helped with that.

 

[whit3rd]

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:36:12 AM UTC-7, John Larkin wrote:

Kids should tinker with electronics when they are young, to get
instincts. Then later, when they get the formal textbook education,
things click. Don really helped with that.

That\'s a possibility, of course; it\'s not the best introduction to
hardware description language, nor to circuit analysis, nor
to filter theory, nor antenna design...

Abstraction has its place, as does tinkering. Edison famously
said an inventor needs a good imagination and lots of junk; that\'s
OK, but we needed Steinmetz\'s math just as much.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

whit3rd <whit3rd@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:36:12 AM UTC-7, John Larkin wrote:

Kids should tinker with electronics when they are young, to get
instincts. Then later, when they get the formal textbook education,
things click. Don really helped with that.

That\'s a possibility, of course; it\'s not the best introduction to
hardware description language, nor to circuit analysis, nor
to filter theory, nor antenna design...

“Kids” doesn’t mean “young adults” here, I don’t think.

I started building stuff when I was 10 years old, along about 1970. It was
relatively accessible to someone with an interest, even without any sort of
mentor. (My brother was interested, but not really a builder.)

Abstraction has its place, as does tinkering. Edison famously
said an inventor needs a good imagination and lots of junk; that\'s
OK, but we needed Steinmetz\'s math just as much.

We do eventually, that’s true. But all the best engineers whom I’ve known
well have started out as hobbyists.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs



--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

 

[Tabby]

On Sunday, 9 July 2023 at 12:52:21 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 9:08:11 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05 AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.
Only if you have read several different text-books. Bad text books are mostly bad in what they leave out, though they can be bad in using misleading concepts, like \"leakage inductance\".
Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.
There are better and worse ways of doing that. Don did tout himself as a guru, and he wasn\'t quite thorough enough to have earned that status.
You doesn\'t seem to have been.

Obviously you don\'t know what electronics books I\'ve read. You\'re just determined to look silly again. Cue more excessive insecurity.
The reference was to people who had been messed up by bad textbooks. You don\'t know enough to know what that means, so you may qualify as an example..
I do know that you haven\'t understood enough good electronics texts, even if I don\'t know the route that got you into your current lamentable state of ignorance.

not even worth responding to is it.

 

[Tabby]

On Sunday, 9 July 2023 at 15:43:55 UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:

On Sat, 8 Jul 2023 16:08:06 -0700 (PDT), Tabby <tabb...@gmail.com
wrote:
On Saturday, 8 July 2023 at 03:29:01 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Saturday, July 8, 2023 at 8:23:05?AM UTC+10, Tabby wrote:
On Friday, 7 July 2023 at 07:28:47 UTC+1, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

Don Lancaster spent a lot of effort advertising himself as an electronics guru to people who didn\'t know much about electronics,

All experts were young once, and a lot used to read that kind of thing. It\'s all part of the learning process. If you have a problem with that it\'s no-one else\'s problem.

Bad text books create lots of problems. You have to be exposed to good ones. and junior engineers who haven\'t, to appreciate how bad the problems can be.

Reading bad ones can be educational too.
Don knew how to interest youngsters in electronics. If you don\'t appreciate the value of that, really who cares.


His books and articles, and Popular Electronics mag, got zillions of
kids interested in electronics, far better than any textbooks would
have done. His style, whether it was instinctive or deliberate, was
accessable and fun for beginners

One could get Popular Electronics at a supermarket. I\'d toss one in
our cart, or just read it while my parents shopped.

What a concept, \"Popular Electronics\"

He and his ilk creates a hugely sucessful phenomenon.
Slow man\'s failure to appreciate that says a thing or 2.

 

[Tabby]

On Sunday, 9 July 2023 at 17:36:12 UTC+1, John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 9 Jul 2023 08:02:09 -0700 (PDT), Michael Terrell
terrell....@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 10:43:55?AM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

His books and articles, and Popular Electronics mag, got zillions of
kids interested in electronics, far better than any textbooks would
have done. His style, whether it was instinctive or deliberate, was
accessable and fun for beginners

One could get Popular Electronics at a supermarket. I\'d toss one in
our cart, or just read it while my parents shopped.

What a concept, \"Popular Electronics\"

You can still read them:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm
There were so many electronics magazines back then!

And literally - on purpose - tons of military surplus electronics that
was almost free. As an under-wing radar pod for $70, or a radiosonde
for a few dollars, or a spiffy CRT display for about $10. Beautiful
tubes almost free.

Kids should tinker with electronics when they are young, to get
instincts. Then later, when they get the formal textbook education,
things click. Don really helped with that.

Of course. What sort of fool thinks those kids would have been better off with just a large dry tome. Interest comes first.

 

[Michael Terrell]

On Sunday, July 9, 2023 at 12:36:12 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

On Sun, 9 Jul 2023 08:02:09 -0700 (PDT), Michael Terrell


You can still read them:

https://worldradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm
There were so many electronics magazines back then!

And literally - on purpose - tons of military surplus electronics that
was almost free. As an under-wing radar pod for $70, or a radiosonde
for a few dollars, or a spiffy CRT display for about $10. Beautiful
tubes almost free.

Kids should tinker with electronics when they are young, to get
instincts. Then later, when they get the formal textbook education,
things click. Don really helped with that.

They were \'Carl and Jerry\'.

That website has several other magazine archives.

I loved the \'ARRL Handbook\', in our Junior High library. It not only had home brewed equipment that you could build, but it had a wealth of information about how to create working projects, along with construction methods to make it work and have a decent appearance. Many pages of Vacuum tube data, and a small section of advertising for companies that sold components, test equipment and tools.

Not only military surplus. Free junk Radios and TVs plus other electronics just for the asking. I put a couple line request in my high school\'s newsletter. We got over 100 TVs plus other electronics for hands on experience. I taught the other students how to troubleshoot the better equipment, and used the rest for parts. We sold enogh repaired equipment to pay for the construction ov a very nice Amateur radio station for the school.
We had a nice HF station, and one of the first Two Meter repeaters in the state of Ohio. Several students from that class became EEs.

Then I donated about 20 remaining working TVs to the school for classrooms.